Compression-regulator for engines with superheated steam.



F. ADAM.

COMPRESSION REGULATOR EOE ENGINES WITH SUPERHBATED STEAM.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11,1912.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

6 SHEETS-SHEET l.

ZWWQE wu'mxm PLANOGRAPII conwAsumuroN, D. c

F. ADAM.

COMPRESSION REGULATOR FOR ENGINES WITH SUPERHEATED STEAM.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 11 1912.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914 e sums-52mm 2.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH co., WASHINGTON, u. c.

vP. ADAM. v COMPRESSION REGULATOR FOR ENGINES WITH SUPERHEATED STEAM.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11, 1912.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH C0,, WASHINGTON. D c.

I. ADAM.

COMPRESSION REGULATOR FOR ENGINES WITH SUPERHEATBD STEAM.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11, 1912.

1 94,958. Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 4,

COLUMBIA PLANDGRAPH (SO-.WASHINGTON, D. c.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11, 1912.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

s SHEETS-SHEET 6.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH COQWASHINGTON. D. c,

F. ADAM.

GOMPRESSION REGULATOR FOR ENGINES WITH SUPERHEATED STEAM.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11, 1912.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

, 6 SHEETS-SHEET 6.

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UNITED sTA'rES 'PA'rENT OFFICE.

riurz ADAM, or BERNE, SWITZERLAND.

s l l 1' COMPRESSION-REGULATOR FOR ENGINES WITH SUPERHEATED STEAM.

To all ti /(.0721 it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRITZ ADAM, a citizen of the Swiss Confederation, and residing at Berne, Switzerland, have invented a certain new and useful Improved Compression Regulator for Engines with superheated Steam, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to locomotive and other steam engines and more particularly to such engines in which superheated. steam used. Engines of this kind often have, a jerky motion; which is transmitted to the train. and which is due to the fact, that for the piston-valve a clearance cannot be provided in the same way as for the slide-valve. Consequently at the end of the return stroke of the piston an excessively high compression occurs, which causes the said jerky motion of the locomotive and is, of course, yery injurious to all the moxing parts. Moreover, the eliiciency of the engine is reduced thereby because the highly compressed steam,when the piston approaches the end of its stroke, not only acts as a butter but also produces a premature bacl:pressi1re, so that the work done by the expanding steam is to a great extent curtailed. Attempts have been made to avoid these defects by re ducing the covering of the exhaust ports, but due to the premature exhaust resulting therefrom, the advantage gained by the su perheating of the steam is partially annulled.

According to my invention I provide means whereby the period of admission of the steam remains short, and the expansion of the steam is utilized until almost the end of the stroke of the piston, while at the same time, the conmression is controlledjli such a way that a smooth running motion of'the locomotive insured.

Iii the accompanying drawings, iii which, for the sake of enplaining my invention, I have illustrated one construction thereof, Figure 1 is a vertical sectionv of the. valve casing along line I,I in either Fig. 2 or 3; Fig. 2 a section along line II-JI in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 a section along line III.III in either Fig. 1 or 2, Fig. 41a section along line lVIVT.in Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a vertical sec tion of the admission-valve, showing its connections, Fig. (tan elevation of the valvegear provided with the auxiliary compression regulator, Fig. 7 a diagrammatic plan Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 11. 19 12.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914. Serial No. 702,954.

of the regulator and its connections with a locomotive.

The valve-casing 1 has a chamber 2 contam ng a slide valve at. adapted to slide on the valve-seat 3 in two, or four differentdirections. On one side of the chamber 2 are four valve-chambers 41, 1-2, 43, 4 1 (Fig. 2) which are partitioned off from one another, each chamber containing a slide-valve 5, 6, 7, 8 respectively. These valves are moved by means of fingers 36 engaging the valves from below and fastened to the movable rods 9 and 10 respectively. By this arrangem'ent stufiing boxes or other packing means are ob\ 'iated.

On the other side of chamber 2 there is fastened to the valve-casing l by screws 12, cylinder 11, in which moves a piston 13, secured to the rod 14 of the slide valve 4;. This piston 13 is used to reciprocate the valve 4 in the direction of the arrow at or vice versa (Figs. 1 and 2).

The chamber 2 is closed by a cover 15 (F 3) in which is journaled a rocking shaft 16 carrying a rocker 17 which is used for moving, the valve 4 in the direction of the arrow 5 or vice versa (Fig. 3). The portion of the shaft 16 above the chamber 2 is square in cross-section tapering in one direction, and the rocker 17 is forced onto this tapered portion and held thereon by a spring 73 On the projecting end of shaft 16 is a crank 63 pivotally connected with a rod 64 (Fig. 7 which in turn is pivoted to a crank fast on the controlling shaft 66 shown in Fig. 7. Into the cylinder 11 termina-tes a steam pipe 18 which comes from the steam chest 19 containing the admission valve 21 (Figs. and 7) From the steam pipe 18 branches on" a pipe 25 which is connected with the chamber 2. The admission valve 21 (Fig. 5) is operated by a movable rod 20, the other end of which is pivotally connected by a link to the rocking lever 22 pivoted at 75. This rocking lever is engaged by a pin 23 on the controlling lever 24 pivotedat 741 which is the pivot of the regulator handle, the valve rod 20 being thus operated by the controlling lever 24. The steam chest 19 is connected by pipe 67 with theilocoinotive boiler.

The operation of the mechanism, just described, is as follows z-Upori opening the admission valve 21, steam passes through the steam pipe 18 into the cylinder 11 moving the piston 13 and thereby the slide valve 4 in the direction of the arrow a (Figs. 1 and 2). Steam also enters through branch pipe into the chamber 2, holding the valve 4 firmly against its seat. In this position of the valves, the pressure is controlled in the following manner :The links 28 (Fig. 6) on the two crossheads 27 carry each a pin 29 engaging a link 30 which is pivotally connected to one end of a rocker arm 31. The latter is fast on a rocking shaft 32 journaled in bearings 33 on the locomotive frame and carrying at its other end a crank 34 to which is pivotally connected a link 35 operating the movable rod 9 or 10. In the body of the valve-casing 1 are bored four duct-s 37, 38, 39, (Fig. 4) starting from the valve seat in chamber 2 and terminating in the valve-chambers 41, 42, 43, 44 as follows: duct 37 in chamber 43, duct 38 in chamber 41, duct 39 in chamber 44, and duct 40 in chamber 42. The slide valve 4 has two recesses 48 and 49 and two passageways 50, 51, so that when the valve moves to the left in Fig. 2, the chambers 41, 42, 43, 44 are connected with the pipes 52, 53, 54 and 55 leading to the clearance spaces of the locomotive cylinders by means of the ducts 56, 57, 58, 59 in the valve-casing 1 (Figs. 2 and 3). In addition to the bores referred to there are in the valve-casing two additional bores provided with branch ducts 47, the bores 45 leading to a common exhaust port 46 and the branch ducts 47 leading in pairs to the valve-chambers 41, 42, 43, 44. The slide valves 5, 6, 7, 8 have each two vertical bores 60 (Figs. 2 and 4), which, in

the end positions of the valves, connect the branch ducts 47 with the chambers 41, 42, 43 and 44.

The above mentioned fingers 36 (Fig. 4) are fastened to the movable rods 9, 10 by means of nuts 61, held on a threaded portion of the rods, so as to enable the fingers to be so adjusted that the valves 5, 6, 7, 8 are at the end of their movement in such a position that the bores 60 at this time coincide with the branch duct 47. The fingers 36 move in slots formed in the wall of the valve-casing 1 (Fig. 4), these slots remaining covered in all positions of the valves 5, 6,

its rear end position.

The above described device operates as follows :When the piston of the locomotive cylinder 68 (Fig. 7) occupies its rear end position, the rod 9 controlling the position of the two valves 5 and 7 is also in In this position of valve 5 valve chamber 41 is connected with the exhaust port 46 through the bore 45. The branch ducts 47 or the bore 45 begin to be opened as soon as the crank on the driving wheel on the corresponding side of the c linder68 (Fig. 6) is at the rear side of the wheel and 45 below the horizontal, and

these ducts remain open, until the crank takes up a position at the rear of the driving wheel and 45 above the horizontal. During this period of rotation of the wheel. axle the crank on the side of the cylinder 69, being set at 90 relative to the other crank, travels from 45 below the horizontal on the forward side of the wheel to 45 below the horizontal on the rear side of the wheel and the piston connected with said crank has thus completed 76% of its entire stroke.

Since owing to the covering of the ex haust ports, exhaust only takes place up to 15% of the period of the piston stroke, a very considerable compression of the steam in the cylinder before the piston usually takes place. This defect. however. is ob viated by my invention, because, when the piston in the cylinder 69 begins its movement during the period of axle rotation ahove referred to, the steam can pass into the atmosphere by way of the pipe 54, duct 58 in the valve-casing 1, the lower part of the passage-way 51 in the slide valve 4. duct 38 in the valve-casing 1. valve-chamber 41 containing valve 5, duct 45 and exhaust port 46, until the said piston has completed 88% of its stroke. In the latter position of the piston, the crank connected with the cylinder 68 passes the 45 in the upper rear portion of the driving wheel and the valve 5 closes the ducts 47, 45 so that the cylinder 69 at the rear side of its piston is shut off from the atmosphere, compression behind this piston thus only taking place during the remaining 12% of the piston stroke. In a similar way is the compression controlled by the corresponding ducts and pipes both on the forward side of the piston whose movement has just been dealt with as well. as on both sides of the piston in the cylinder 68. From the front side of the piston in cylinder 69 the steam passes through pipe duct 59, recess 49, duct 37 to the valve 7 from the rear side of the piston in cylinder 68 through pipe 52, duct 56, lower portion of passageway 50, duct 39. to valve 8 and from the front side of the piston in cylinder 68 through pipe 53, duct 57, recess 48, duct 40 to valve 6.

The covering of the exhaust ports by the piston valve connected with the working piston is so arranged that the steam with any desired admission can be expanded to the end of the working stroke.

When the engine is reversed the slide valve 4 is mechanically operated as follows: The rod 64 connecting the crank 63 on the shaft 16 with the crank 65 on the shaft 66 is allowed so much way that, on the valvegear being set to the reverse position, valve 4 is forced over into its reverse position, whereby the described pipe and duct connections are interrupted, the following connection being formed instead, to wit: Front side of piston in cylinder 69, through pipe 55, duct 59, passage-way 51, duct 88, to valve 5. Rear side of piston in cylinder 69 through pipe 65, duct 58, recess 19, duct 57 to valve 7. Front side of piston in cylinder 68 through pipe 58, duct 57, passage-way duct 39 to valve 8. Rear side of piston in cylinder 38 through pipe 52, duct 56, recess 18, duct 40 to valve 6.

The above described compression controlling mechanism is automatically thrown out of gear in the following manner :The pin 23 (Fig. 5) on the controlling lever 24 on the closing of the regulator actuates the rocking lever 22 so as to return the admission valve 21 to the position shown in Fig. 5. The steam in cylinder 11 (Fig. 1) be fore the piston 13 as well as the steam in the valve-chamber 2, now passes through the pipe 18, duct 71, recess 70 back to the admission valve, through duct 72 into the atmosphere, whereas the steam reaching the back of the piston 13, owing to the play between the cylinder 11 and piston rod 14, moves the piston and the valve 41 connected therewith to the right in Figs. 1 and 2, z. e. opposite to the direction shown by the arrow (1, whereby the ducts 56, 57, 58 and 59 are opened to the air and the four sides of the working piston are connected with one another. The steam remaining in cylinder 11 escapes through a groove provided in well-known manner but not shown, and the water of condensation forming escapes through a drain cock also not shown.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination with the working cyl inders of a steam engine operating with superheated steam and pistons therein, of a separate valve-casing containing ducts, and slide valves so arranged in said casing as to control said ducts leading from the clearance spaces of the said working cylinders to the atmosphere, and means for so opera-ting said valves as to connect the space on that side of the piston opposite to the side where the expansion takes place with the atmosphere, thereby regulating the exhaust and compression of the steam independently of the amount of covering of the steam ports in said working cylinders.

52. The combination with working cylinders of a steam engine operating with superheated steam, pistons therein and the steam chest, of a separate valve-casing, valve chambers in said casing containing ducts leading to said working cylinders, slide valves in said valve-chambers controlling said ducts, a controlling valve provided with bores, a cylinder connected with said casing, a movable piston therein for actuating said controlling valve, and means for admitting steam to said cylinder to operate said piston and said controlling valve, for the purpose of regulating the compression of steam in said working cylinders.

3. The combination with working cylinders of a steam engine operating with superheated steam, pistons in said cylinders and the steam chest, of a separate valvecasing, valve-chambers therein containing ducts leading to said working cylinders, slide valves in said valve-chambers controlling said ducts, fingers engaging said slide valves through openings in the valveseats, movable rods adjustably carrying said fingers, a rocking shaft, connections between said rocking shaft and said rod including the crossheads of the pistons of said working cylinders so as to automatically operate said slide valves for the purpose of controlling the compression of steam in said working cylinders.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

FRITZ ADAM.

Witnesses NA'rHANAiiL LEUBA, FRIEDRICH MONING.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G." 

